Categories

The Difference Between One Million and One Billion

Intellectually, we all know that a billion is much more than a million. You know, 1,000 times more.

We know that Jeff Bezos is a lot wealthier than Beyoncé for example and that Bill Gates’ wealth puts the Kardashians to shame.

But do you really know how much more 1 billion is than 1 million? Probably not. That’s because humans have a difficult time conceptualizing the difference in degrees between the two numbers. As Gizmodo reports:

While living and evolving in a so-called state-of-nature, our paleolithic ancestors had no need (i.e. no environmental pressures) to develop such a capacity.

Back then, and prior to the advent of a formal numbering system, early humans only really needed to get a basic sense of small batches of quantities, like the number of people in the clan, or how many animals might occupy a certain area.

That’s good news for people like Bezos and Gates because chances are if you knew how much money they actually have (well, how high their net worth actually is), you probably wouldn’t be too pleased.

To help put it in perspective, we’ll compare Bey and Bezos.

Beyoncé v.s. Bezos

The pop star had a net worth of $355 million, according to Forbes’ 2018 America’s Richest Self-Made Women list. That’s an almost unfathomably large number. And yet Bezos’s $164 billion net worth, based on Forbes’ 2018 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, easily surpasses her (Bezos’s net worth fluctuates daily).

In fact, it would take more than 462 Beyoncés to get you to Bezos’s net worth. Bey doesn’t even make the top 400 list.

Now, what about 1 trillion? We’ll have to save that for another video.

FTC Disclaimer

Please Note: material connections may not be made known at every single advertisement or affiliate link. You should assume that a material connection exists and that we may receive compensation in money or otherwise for anything you purchase as a result of visiting this website and also that we may be paid merely by you clicking any link.